Illoca

Illoca, Inc. is an AI-native design software company headquartered at 3001 Bishop Dr #300, San Ramon, California. It develops tools that let architects and engineers move from informal inputs — hand sketches, bubble and spatial diagrams, reference photos, existing plans, and natural-language instructions — to structured, editable architectural geometry, rather than working through conventional command- and button-driven CAD and BIM interfaces.

Its first product, Illoca Tracing Paper, is described as an intelligent canvas with two modes: Ideate, where a rough sketch or verbal prompt becomes an entry point for architectural drawings, and Iterate, where redlines and markups drive real-time updates to geometry and documentation. Advertised capabilities include converting sketches and plans into editable floor plans (Augmented Sketch), generating BIM-compatible 3D massing (Adaptive Massing), producing or completing floor plan options from prompts (Prompted Plans), agent-executed layout edits from markups (Agentic Refinement), and facade option generation (Instant Facades). Finished work can be exported into Autodesk Revit. A second tool, Plamo, is a browser-based cross-disciplinary modeling product that converts text, photos or plans into editable parametric 3D models exportable as Rhino, Grasshopper or GLB files in organized layers.

The company frames the problem it addresses in terms of production overhead in architectural practice, citing figures that architects spend roughly 60 percent of their workweek on production, translation and rebuilding rather than design — more than 1,300 hours per architect per year, which it characterizes as a $720 billion "Production Tax" within a $12 trillion global construction industry.

Founding story

Illoca was founded in 2024 by Chin-Yi Cheng (CEO) and Chiaowei Yu (COO). Cheng worked on generative AI for design and architecture in research roles at Google DeepMind and the Autodesk AI Lab; Yu led the Building Information Modeling team at Tesla, delivering large-scale manufacturing and R&D facilities, and previously worked on complex healthcare projects. The pair combined research and practitioner perspectives on where existing design tools break down and set out to build the generative interface they had wanted during their careers.

Business model

Illoca sells access to its AI design tools on a subscription basis with a credit-based usage system shared across Tracing Paper and Plamo. Credits are consumed only for agent tasks such as image generation, agent chats and edits, floor plan and 3D massing generation, and exports; navigation, sketching and interface use are not charged. Enterprise engagements add custom agents, security controls, custom-trained models, zero-data retention, SLAs and custom legal terms.

Published tiers are a free plan (100 credits refreshing monthly, plus 1,000 starter credits at signup), Explore at $29.99 per person per month with 3,000 monthly credits and higher generation and export quotas, Team at $59.99+ per team per month adding pooled usage, multiplayer collaboration, permissions and billing management, SSO and license management, and Enterprise at custom pricing. In Tracing Paper, image generation and agent chats cost 10 credits each, agent edits typically 5-50 credits, floor plan generation 15-150, 3D massing 10-120 and exports 10-100. Plamo charges per round, with most generations or edits costing 100-150 credits.

Traction

Named early partners and adopters include Kajima Corporation, one of the largest global design and construction firms, whose Chief Architect Yasuhiro Nakano stated the tool lets its team iterate through multiple options quickly while preserving architectural intent. The company says Illoca turns weeks of design work into days. Funding of $13 million in Seed capital was announced in May 2026.

Latest developments

Following the May 2026 Seed round, proceeds were earmarked for expanding the engineering team, advancing the AI design engine and expanding operations and product development. The company's site now markets two products, Tracing Paper and Plamo, with a shared credit balance, published subscription pricing, and a waitlist for the Team tier.